What is there to do in Memphis?

[schundog]

There is no sin in finding a GOOD Gibby. Congratulations. Drive safe, brutha!!

[Redsand]

Nice score! My buddy just bought a Traditional from a HOC members and LOVES it.

 

Be safe!

[rockabilly69]

Well, today I learned that Gibson has three factories. My wife and I toured the one one Beale Street in Memphis this morning as previously mentioned. The Memphis factory does hollow and semi-hollow body guitars, the Nashville factory makes solid body guitars and there is another one Bozeman Montanna where they make acoustics. I like the Heritage guitar factory better.

 

I almost made it out of there without buying a souvineer. The tour was in the morning and I made it all the way to the hotel room after the tour. We even stopped at the Central BBQ place for lunch. But as the day progressed, I started getting very restless and so we returned to the Gibson gift shop with less than an hour before they closed so I could take another look at this 2014 Les Paul Traditional that I had my eye on the first time I was there. Oh the humanity! Me of all people, buying a Gibson! I pulled the trigger with about 12 minutes left to spare before they closed. I'm having the guitar shipped to me in Virginia so that I can avoid the $260.00 in Tennessee sales tax. I'll post a NGD after I get it home. I'm sure I'll catch heck from RB69 and Slammer for buying a Gibson but this one is actually sort of nice. I'll get another Heritage next time. I promise.

 

For supper we were going to go to the Hard Rock Cafe on Beale Street but there was a big name act playing there and we decided to get supper elsewhere. It worked out just fine because we wound up going to BB King's Blues Club and had a good time. $3.00 cover and I didn't catch the name of the band playing there. Beale Street had a festival going on called Africa in April or something like that. I really enjoyed the warm weather and all the hot pants (Daisy Dukes, short-shorts, booty shorts... whatever you call them). Does that make me a bad person? hahaha

 

We are leaving Memphis tomorrow morning and intend on driving back to Northern Virginia all in one day.

 

The traditional is one of the Gibson USA Les Pauls that isn't weight relieved so it's one of the better ones. So what was is about

that guitar that floated your boat? Must have been a pretty good one.

 

If I'm doing my math right (tennessee sales tax 9.5%), you paid $2736 for that Gibson? Is that correct?

[HANGAR18]

 

The traditional is one of the Gibson USA Les Pauls that isn't weight relieved so it's one of the better ones. So what was is about

that guitar that floated your boat? Must have been a pretty good one.

 

If I'm doing my math right (tennessee sales tax 9.5%), you paid $2736 for that Gibson? Is that correct?

 

That is a good question. To get a running start at that question, you may recall that I've said previously that I became such a huge fan of Heritage guitars because I was first a huge fan of the Gibson Les Paul guitars. But I became disenchanted with Gibson due to my own personal experiences and the many radical changes that they were introducing to the Les Paul models. Chambering, substitutions of materials and so on. The purist in me was outraged at the adulterations of the Les Paul design! I also felt that they were overpriced.

 

But sometimes when I go to the store, I don't want to buy the generic equivalent. Sometimes I just want to buy the name brand, even if it costs more and I know good and well that the generic brand is just as good or better. ("Generic" is not a derogatory reference to Heritage guitars. Many of us are well convinced that Heritage guitars are as good or better than Gibson guitars and that they don't cost as much because we are not paying for the brand name just for the brand name's sake.)

 

So this month, the purist in me was interested in finding a "real" Gibson Les Paul. One that my brain could analyze and say, yes, this is the real deal. (One. Not two, three or ten, I just wanted one... that's it.) As usual, I did a lot of research before I went to Memphis and thought that this new "Traditional" model might be something worth looking into further. I found a brand new, 2014 hanging up which convinced my purist brain that it was the real deal. (This is just my own personal perception and no offense to any LP owners out there who have one with different specs.) Heavy, unchambered body, medium thin 60's neck, Gibson logo inlay on the headstock, neck binding over the edges of the frets, nice flame maple top, vintage voiced pickups, those little pointy things under the pots which give you a point of reference, and the way it sounded and vibrated in my hands when I played in acoustically.

 

Looks, feel, sound. That's what I liked about it. I could imagine any big name performer playing this guitar and being happy with it. It cost me $2615.00 with free shipping to Virginia. I'm currently expecting it on Thursday.

[rockabilly69]

Well I can't wait to hear what you think of it when you put it through it's paces!

[C9Y]

 

Well, today I learned that Gibson has three factories. My wife and I toured the one one Beale Street in Memphis this morning as previously mentioned. The Memphis factory does hollow and semi-hollow body guitars, the Nashville factory makes solid body guitars and there is another one Bozeman Montanna where they make acoustics. I like the Heritage guitar factory better.

 

I almost made it out of there without buying a souvineer. The tour was in the morning and I made it all the way to the hotel room after the tour. We even stopped at the Central BBQ place for lunch. But as the day progressed, I started getting very restless and so we returned to the Gibson gift shop with less than an hour before they closed so I could take another look at this 2014 Les Paul Traditional that I had my eye on the first time I was there. Oh the humanity! Me of all people, buying a Gibson! I pulled the trigger with about 12 minutes left to spare before they closed. I'm having the guitar shipped to me in Virginia so that I can avoid the $260.00 in Tennessee sales tax. I'll post a NGD after I get it home. I'm sure I'll catch heck from RB69 and Slammer for buying a Gibson but this one is actually sort of nice. I'll get another Heritage next time. I promise.

 

For supper we were going to go to the Hard Rock Cafe on Beale Street but there was a big name act playing there and we decided to get supper elsewhere. It worked out just fine because we wound up going to BB King's Blues Club and had a good time. $3.00 cover and I didn't catch the name of the band playing there. Beale Street had a festival going on called Africa in April or something like that. I really enjoyed the warm weather and all the hot pants (Daisy Dukes, short-shorts, booty shorts... whatever you call them). Does that make me a bad person? hahaha

 

We are leaving Memphis tomorrow morning and intend on driving back to Northern Virginia all in one day.

 

 

There are two factories in Nashville, the Gibson USA shop, a high volume plant, and the Gibson Custom Shop, on I want to say Elm Hill Pike, something like that. The Custom Shop is much higher volume than Heritage, and has some of the fixtures and tooling from Kzoo. They do the arch tops and mandolins there as well as loads of Les Pauls. I've not been to the Gibson USA plant, so I can't comment.

[HANGAR18]

   

 

There are two factories in Nashville, the Gibson USA shop, a high volume plant, and the Gibson Custom Shop, on I want to say Elm Hill Pike, something like that. The Custom Shop is much higher volume than Heritage, and has some of the fixtures and tooling from Kzoo. They do the arch tops and mandolins there as well as loads of Les Pauls. I've not been to the Gibson USA plant, so I can't comment.

 

It's hard to believe that they have made so many guitars so far this year. For 2014, their serial numbers have a 140001 prefix and they are filling in the rest according to sequence for the whole year. There is no way to tell what day a particular guitar is made but using this method it is possible to learn how many they made during the year. My guitar is very new; so new that the sales guy didn't even know it was there. Judging from this guitar's serial number, they have made at least 17000 guitars so far this year.

 

This girl who worked the register in this little store recommended Central BBQ for lunch. We went there and really liked it. They make their own beer too. Yummy!

 

[i posted a NGD in a different thread.]

[Gitfiddler]

Sidebar: One of the things I've always liked about our Heritage Owners Club is how it is OK to discuss Gibson (aka Gibby, Gbrand, etc.), Fender, G&L, PRS, Hamer, and virtually any other guitar maker on the planet, and it's all good. Nobody ever seems to get riled up. Now that is a great guitar forum!

 

Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

[C9Y]

Here's an interesting bit of trivia. When I toured the Gibson Custom Shop (I think it's technically the Custom Division), he spent a lot of time telling us about wood, and they're really, really picky about the wood that goes into the historic reissue LPs. Their "B" grade stack looked really, really good to me. We must have fished through wood for 15 minutes, with him explaining why this maple piece was graded so and so. The chief difference is that Heritage uses the pantograph machine for roughing out the bodies, where Gibson uses a pair of CNC for the rough cut. After that the hand work takes over, save for Gibson has a pair of Pleks.

 

At any rate, I asked if LP maple flame or figure made any difference other than looks? Answer, no. No difference. However, he said some of the employees feel as though the best-sounding LPs have the lightest mahogany backs coupled with the heaviest maple cap (regardless of looks). I must say Gibson sources lighter mahogany than the Heritages I've handled, including my H150. I need to ask Marv or Jim about the top vs. back weight observation.

 

Also got a tutorial on western big leaf maple (think of the typical PRS top) vs. eastern maple. I liked the eastern maple better. A really interesting tour and friendly folks.

[HANGAR18]

However, he said some of the employees feel as though the best-sounding LPs have the lightest mahogany backs coupled with the heaviest maple cap (regardless of looks). I must say Gibson sources lighter mahogany than the Heritages I've handled, including my H150. I need to ask Marv or Jim about the top vs. back weight observation.

 

I would be interested to hear what he (or any of the Heritage Guitar founders) have to say about that.